Friday, August 15, 2008

In the hairy and hoax-filled history of Bigfoot, those who believe in the mythical beast have offered up all manner of evidence, from grainy photos to hoarse recordings to tracks of those aforementioned feet.

But on Friday at a hotel in Palo Alto, Calif., a pair of Bigfoot hunters say they will present what they contend is the most definitive proof yet of an animal that science says does not exist: DNA evidence and photographs of a dead specimen they say they found in a remote swath of woods in northern Georgia.

According to this AJC piece, the two Georgians are a former correctional officer and a current Clayton County police officer.

This week, a Clayton County police officer helped give Georgia its own shot at Bigfoot glory, by claiming to have acquired a Bigfoot carcass in the North Georgia mountains.

Matthew Whitton, and his partner, former corrections officer Ric Dyer, announced they will reveal their findings today in a Palo Alto, Calif., press conference co-hosted by Bigfoot entrepreneur Tom Biscardi.

Awesome. The site is back up and proclaiming "Bigfoot Has Been Found!" and in the North Georgia mountains too (though why they flew out to California for "the presentation" is not clear).

I knew there were pockets up in the mountains not far from here where folks still brewed some funny stuff, but this is outstanding. Make sure you check out their accompanying picture of "Bigfoot" on ice (below).

"One photograph provided to the news media showed what resembled a gorilla — or maybe an old sheepskin rug — lying twisted in a freezer, with a dollop of intestines protruding from its belly.

“There’s a lot of comment being made that it looks fake, or it looks like a suit,” Mr. Dyer said. “But these people wasn’t there when I was sweating, pulling this thing through the woods.”

Clayton police chief Jeff Turner said that while Whitton has permission to run his Bigfoot tracking business on the side, his claims of capturing the mythical creature could reflect on his official image.

“When he comes back from medical leave, we’ll have to sit down and address those issues,” Turner said.

He might serve as an excellent deterrent, if you think about it. Suspects in the middle of fleeing or committing crimes may stop to ask, "Hey, aren't you the guy who found Bigfoot?" Busted!

Meanwhile, the two men told our local Banner-Herald the body was being stored "somewhere in Georgia" and they recently turned down $10 million for the rug, er, ape.

On Aug. 12, Whitton again told the Banner-Herald that he had the body of a sasquatch. Dyer would only say that the body is somewhere in Georgia and is being guarded.

Whitton said the pair backed out of an offer of $10 million for the body.

"We sat down and talked about it for a long time. And we decided that's selling out. If you consider what can be done with this creature, that's basically giving it away," he said. "The fact is, if we've got the body, we can make sure that we make the decisions on what happens with it. It's not going to China."

Too bad. I'm sure he would have been a smash at the Olympics. And $10 million is "selling out" and "giving it away"?